US Urged to Capitalize on Hundreds of Billions in Clean Energy Investment

(Guardian)

The United States government has been urged to provide greater policy stability for the renewables market, after a new report found global clean energy investment could total $1.9tr (£1.2tr) between 2012 and 2018.

The Pew Charitable Trusts published research on Thursday predicting revenue from the installation of renewable energy technologies, including wind and solar projects, would grow at a compound annual rate of eight per cent from $200bn in 2012 to $327bn by 2018, delivering cumulative revenue of $1.9tr.

The report suggested the US could secure 14.5 per cent of that revenue, equal to $276bn over the next six years.

However, Pew warned the US could fail to capitalise on the opportunity, because of uncertainty about government policies, including the future of recently extended tax breaks for wind farm developers, which are again scheduled to expire at the end of this year.